


Conjunction

by dicktrickle



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Family Reunions, Gen, Post-Dragons (Overwatch), Smoking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-03
Updated: 2018-07-03
Packaged: 2019-06-04 22:03:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,102
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15156560
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dicktrickle/pseuds/dicktrickle
Summary: They met not more than one month after their first encounter with each other at Genji’s shrine. A month after the truth had come out; a month apart to let it settle its heavy head on their weary souls. A month of convincing themselves that what they had seen of the other was real.In every respect, it was a hard month to get through, for both of their sakes.





	Conjunction

**Author's Note:**

> My piece for the zine Tale of Two Dragons! It was such a fun experience, thanks to the creator, mods, and the entire team.  
> Enjoy!

They met not more than one month after their first encounter with each other at Genji’s shrine. A month after the truth had come out; a month apart to let it settle its heavy head on their weary souls. A month of convincing themselves that what they had seen of the other was real.

In every respect, it was a hard month to get through, for both of their sakes.

Hanzo waited at the designated checkpoint--a rooftop only four blocks away from their old haunt--his brother, the cyborg,  _Genji_ to show up. Ten minutes past their agreed meeting time and he could not help but think that not much has changed of his brother--changed in regards to his habits, he quickly corrected.

Before his thoughts had a chance to dampen his already anxious mood, a gust of wind blew against his back. Genji had arrived.

Silence permeated the rooftop, Hanzo staring out to the street below, Genji undoubtedly taking in the new look Hanzo had adopted since the last time they met. A hesitant cough, and Hanzo took it as his cue to turn around, steeling himself for his brother’s reaction.

Where he expected a boisterous response, he was met with only a soft ‘ _oh_ ’, his brother’s visor blocking direct view of any subconscious judgments from being seen. Hanzo held the stare regardless, face passive and open, slightly raising an eyebrow when Genji failed to do more than stand there. Sighing, he resigned to break the silence first, not missing the way it brought back old memories of the same man standing before him. _It really_ is _him._

“Genji.”

At the sound of his name, Genji reanimated himself in a show of relaxing, not so subtly breaking his defensive pose, approaching with thinly veiled caution. “Hanzo. You look different.”

“You never were one for subtlety.” Hanzo turned to face forward once more, listening aptly to the sound of Genji’s footsteps. “I took some liberty with what you said, and have come to acclimate to the ever changing world.” He looked over at his brother beside him, looking forward and not at him. “You were not the only one who wished to express themselves, and I feel it is my time to partake.”

A muffled laugh bled through the visor. “A late bloomer for your rebellious stage, then. It suits you.”

Neither spoke another word for a time too long to be considered anything but uncomfortable, the unspoken reference from Genji’s speech left up in the air. In the distance, a pigeon lifted from a balcony, a speeding car the culprit of its surprise.

“I have thought more on the other parts you said, the important parts not dealing with my… lack of expression.” At this, Hanzo turned fully to look at his brother, the intent in his stare willing the man he both knew the least and most about in the world to face him as well. His efforts paid off with a slight swivel of a cybernetic heel.

“Do not disregard your growth as unimportant, brother, it does a disservice to us both.”

“I apologize, I didn’t mean it as such.” Hanzo fought the redness that threatened to overtake his face when he heard Genji throw his own words back at him, a shadow of the mimicry he suffered in his youth. “I meant I have a response to your observation of the world and its state.” He kept his ground even as Genji leaned in close, his ever present eagerness piercing the indifferent image his cybernetic body and visor lent him. “I choose to be on the side of good.”

Despite his face being hidden, Hanzo felt the beaming smile that overtook his brother’s face, the weight of his joy reaching his contactless eyes. He allowed him some seconds to revel in it, he himself pulling a cigarette from his pocket and lighting it, before he continued, effectively cutting Genji’s congratulations off. “That does not mean I choose to be on your side, however.”

“ ** _What_ **.”

A laugh bubbled from his throat before he could stop it. He wiped the emotion from his face, however, lowering his head to take a deeper draw from his cigarette. The memories of younger days that exclamation conjured up had no place in this conversation, or even this life.

“I formally decline your invitation. Both of them, I mean.”

With his new physique, Genji appeared to lock in place, letting the words wash over him. Hanzo knew such was not the case, an assumption he also knew he no longer had freedom to have.

“Both-- both of _what_ , Hanzo?” Genji’s chest moved in an act similar to breathing deeply, an act that unsettled Hanzo more than he cared to admit. Whether it was necessary for Genji to breathe at all was something he never thought he would ever have to think, after all. “I’m not sure what you’re getting at.”

Another small laugh brushed past his lips, this one intentional. Looking Genji straight in the eye--visor--Hanzo let the sad smile pull at his face. “I decline your offer to join Overwatch, as well as the implications of my joining that you wished to pursue.”

As blank as his brother’s mask appeared, Hanzo could feel the tension and frustration rolling off of him in waves. In a voice he had not heard since even _years_ before their fated duel, Genji demanded but one thing: “ _Why_.”

Silence engulfed them. Before, the chatter of people in the streets below sounded distant and detached in his ears. Before, the breeze across the rooftops whistled between pipes and fixtures. Before, the sound of his own heart beat in Hanzo’s ears, trepidation and anxiety amplifying it to a cadence never before heard in his life.

Now, only silence answered Genji’s call.

“Before,” Hanzo began, looking where he hoped his brother’s eyes laid beneath his mask. “Before the moment I entered what I thought would become your tomb, I would have had an answer as vile as what I did to you.” He closed his eyes then, the cherry of his cigarette lighting his face in a poor replica of the aftermath of that day. “Now, I can simply say that I think it would not be a good fit.”

“Bull _shit_.” Genji’s joints creaked as he turned away forcefully, the sound synthetic and muted. “I can’t-- You-- This--” His aborted attempts sounded more mechanical than anything he had said previously, the rasp of his hesitation echoing within him. He recomposed himself to rid his body of agitation, exhaustion taking its place almost immediately. “Hanzo. Please. Do not do this to me, not now.”

“I feel that I must now turn the question back onto you: what do you mean?”

Genji let his body fall loose, balancing his weight from and off the heels of his feet. His shoulders fell with a filtered sigh, an old habit their teachers failed to shake out of him despite their attempts. “I wouldn’t have extended my offer if I wasn’t serious in forgiving you, I need you to understand that.”

At Hanzo’s expectant look, he continued. “If this is about your self-imposed drive to redeem yourself, then you’re wasting your energy. I thought I made myself clear the last time we met, but I was mistaken. I don’t blame you Hanzo, not anymore. Not for a long time.”

Neither said a word, the confession sticking in the space between them. Hanzo disposed of the cigarette butt and lit another, about to speak before Genji gently cut him off. “I spent years thinking about that day, Hanzo. Almost an entire decade between then and now, and almost every day plagued with the memory. In the beginning, I’ll admit to blaming you, cursing you with every fiber left of my natural being, growing more with each surgery, more synthetic flesh added to my body.”

Genji stuttered in his movement then, his swaying of inactivity left over from childhood abruptly stopped. Hanzo shuffled his own feet, unable to meet his brother’s eyes.

“Joining the Shambali changed everything for me, from accepting my body to accepting that you weren’t entirely to blame for my becoming this. I only want to extend the knowledge that I have learned from them, and aid you on your path. It’s time to forgive _yourself_ , brother. Let me help you.”

“I don’t want your help because I don’t need your help, Genji.”

“Hanzo--”

“What do you think I’ve been doing all these years?” Calm, collected, articulate, and with an edge of ire. “What you think you know of me, may have been true in the past, but it’s now _wrong_ , brother.”

“Would you care to enlighten me, then? What am I supposed to make of hearing of your annual visits to the Castle, and in particular my shrine? Would you care to explain that?” Genji’s impatience expressed itself physically, despite his mechanized body. The lights on his person flickered with his emotion, settling into a subdued hue, glowing like stubborn embers.

Hanzo’s grip on his cigarette tightened, only the barest hint of a crack in his demeanor. Genji twitched at the movement but said nothing.

“You’re correct, in some part. I did blame myself for what I did to you, and rightly so. But what you’re failing to grasp is that I mourned you. For days, weeks, months, years, I did nothing but mourn and beg and plead. To who or what, I didn’t care. I found refuge at the bottom of a bottle, running from the truth with every drink. But I mourned. My regret kept me from doing anything but.”

With every admission, Hanzo appeared to deflate more and more. Where tension once took hold of his stance, a nervous calm settled in its place.

“The brother you are trying to return to is gone, Genji. That hasn’t been me in ages, around the five year mark of your….well, now untrue death.”

Nothing in Genji’s still posture gave away his emotion, Hanzo noted. Anger, sadness, _pity_ , nothing about Genji nor his new body betrayed whatever it was the other thought, the silence pushing the drift between them. In another time, another life, Hanzo would have known exactly what to expect out of his younger brother. Now, though.

Now he could not guess the range of Genji’s emotions, from one side of the spectrum to another.

A frustrated sigh had Hanzo finally looking at his brother, face blank with the exception of resignation.

“You think I’m brushing this off out of duty, out of acceptance that this _needs_ to be done in order to grow. But you couldn’t be further from the truth. In actuality, I appear to be dismissive because I _am_ dismissive. I could not care less about the reasons you tell yourself or anything that you’re saying. I simply do not care. And it isn’t meant to be hostile or cold. I have simply moved on, grown from the person I used to be.”

He pulled the cigarette from his lips, exhaled the plume of smoke through his nose, conjuring up the image of the ravenous dragon he so desperately tried to escape. 

“The person you _knew_ , the one who was allowed to reign and wore my face and carried out the duties of others is gone. Who I am now is the person without that negative influence. I live for myself now, and would appreciate if you let me live it the way I please.”

Another drag of the cigarette, another plume of smoke that dissipated to reveal a tired man in its midst.

“And the life I live now has no room for you. I’m sorry.”

The cigarette fell to the ground quietly, a pile of ash cushioning its fall from Hanzo’s grasp. The breeze picked up into a gust, disturbing the pile and taking with it a majority of ash, lifting it to the air. Hanzo turned to fully face Genji, tall, proud, and for the first time in his life, without the hint of self loathing.

“Too much time has passed for me to remain the same, and you are welcome to try to create something new with me as I am now, but do not expect to have an advantage simply because you are my blood. As different as you are physically, I am mentally. I am free now.”

Finally breaking his silence, Genji took a step closer to Hanzo, coming face to face with the stranger before him.

“I look forward to meeting you in a different light.”

This time, Hanzo had no doubt his brother was smiling.

**Author's Note:**

> My [tumblr](https://squelchsquelch.tumblr.com)
> 
> My [twitter](https://twitter.com/invizidick)


End file.
